Hiring remote workers means that you can get the absolute best person for the job – not just one who is willing to live in your city. The bottom line: If your company doesn’t include remote working options, you could be cutting your possible candidate pool in half and be eliminating the most qualified developers from consideration.

If you need more convincing, below are some statistics regarding developers and remote working.

Who Works Remotely?

According to our recent survey, 10% of developers work remotely full-time, 19% work remotely part-time, 48% work remotely rarely, and 23% never work remotely. If we compare these developer-specific numbers to those of the U.S. workforce in general, we see large differences. Just 2.6% of the U.S. employee workforce consider home their primary place of work compared with the 10% for developers.

Of those developers who work remotely full-time, 14% have 11+ years of experience and just 8% have 1-2 years of experience. Some conclusions we could postulate from these numbers are that employers may be more likely to allow remote workers who have “been around the block” or “paid their dues”, and that those who have had more experience are generally older and may have additional needs for working remotely, such as a family. Along the lines of this assumption, we also found that females are 20% more likely to consider the ability to work remotely when considering a job.

How Important is the Ability to Work Remotely to Developers?

Remote working options are incredibly important to some developers, especially those who live in smaller cities that aren’t necessarily classified as a “tech hub”. A few noteworthy stats include:

50% of developers say that working remote is “at least somewhat important” to them.

11% of developers said that when evaluating a new employment opportunity, remote working options was in their top 3 list of things that matter most.

20% of developers are not likely to take a job if you don’t allow remote working.

Stack Overflow users with 5,000+ rep are twice more likely than other developers to say that “remote optional” is non-negotiable.

Developer Compensation by Remote Status

Remote work pays well. Developers who work remotely full-time earn about 40% more than those who never work remotely. If this stat worries you, think about all the cost savings from having a chunk of your developers work remotely. For starters, you’ll spend less on office space, utilities, and transportation reimbursement. Additionally, you’ll save money due to the increase in productivity, the decreased turnover rate, and fewer employee absences. Data from the Telework Coalition shows that businesses save an average of $20,000 annually for each full-time remote employee.

Businesses that allowed employees to work remotely at least three times per month were more likely to log revenue growth of at least 10% within the last 12 months, compared with firms without such policies. Take Cisco for example – the company has generated an estimated annual savings of $277 million in productivity by allowing employees to telecommute and telework.